


Not Anymore

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Knighting ceremony, Light Angst, jedi knighting, master-padawan relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-25
Updated: 2006-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 10:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1684289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Jedi knights her padawan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Anymore

She knew this day would come eventually. Since the day she had chosen him this was what they had worked toward. This day when she suddenly found herself facing her little boy, and realizing that he really wasn’t so little anymore. She simply never expected this day to come around so quickly. 

They stood facing each other in the center of the ceremonial chamber, in the exact place they had stood eleven years ago when she had first braded his hair and handed him the level 4 training lightsaber. The same place where they had first stood side by side as master and padawan for the very first time. 

She vividly remembered kneeling before him and taking a strand of his curly black hair, the only such strand that remained after the padawan haircut had been administered, and winding it into a thin, short braid that would soon grow long. 

The boy—no, young man, she reminded herself—that stood before her was twenty-two standard years old, not eleven. He was confident, sometimes cocky, not shy and quite. It was laughable how no one had wanted to take him as a Learner because they distinguished some sort of dark traces in his nature. It was, in truth, appalling. She wondered with a rather un-Jedi-like glee what they would say if they could see them now. If they could see the knight-to-be that that small boy had grown into. 

“Kneel, Jedi Valenzy.” She ordered softly. “Jed Valenzy.” Once again he was in between titles just like on the day she had first braided his hair. Not a knight quite yet but not a padawan ether. Not her padawan. Not anymore. She would simply have to get use to calling his, by name. “Paolo” not “my Padawan”…frankly it sounded strange. 

Paolo dropped to one knee before her, hiding a shy smile that was tugging at the corners of his mouth. She reached out and took his braid gently in one hand and unhooked her lightsaber from her belt with the other. So this was it. A bittersweet moment. 

She remembered the day Paolo had left to serve his Jedi Trial. She had grown rather emotional, in the end embracing him twice on the landing platform, embarrassing him no doubt. 

_:”I’m proud of you…”  
_ _  
_ _“Let the Force guide you…”  
_ _  
_ _“Remember what you’ve learned…”  
_ _  
_ _“Good luck…”  
_ _  
_ _“May the Force be with you…”  
_ _  
_ _“Follow your instinct…”  
_ _  
_ _“Please don’t confuse the Djem So blocks with the Shian ones! It’s not the same form…”  
_ _  
_ _“I’ll be waiting for you when you return…”  
_ _  
_ _“Do use your head…at least in the negotiations portion…”  
_ _  
_ _“I’m proud of you…”  
_ _  
_ _“You’ll do just fine…”  
_ _  
_ _“I love you…”  
_ _  
_She could still hear her words echoing in her own mind. The last minute scraps of advice that she shouted at him even as he lifted off of the launch platform. When he came back and the council had declared his success, only when the date of the knighting had been set, did the realization suddenly hit her that her young one wasn’t so young anymore. That the boy she loved as a son and had sworn to protect was all grown up and ready to move on.

She was happy for him, of course. But, Force, would she miss him! 

She pulled the braid taunt as her ‘saber hissed to life. It only took a single flick of her wrist and with a low _hissshhh_ the braid was severed and falling to the marble floor. It landed noiselessly and lay there coiled up and defenseless. 

Both former master and apprentice stared at it for several moments. Then their eyes met and locked. He looked so happy, she noticed suddenly. But there was that warmth there in them. That promise that he would still come around to tell her of his exploits on far off planets, out off reach of her watchful eye. She reached for the bond tentatively. It was still there as strong as ever. That simple fact offered her much comfort. 

Finally she was able to swallow the lump in her throat and when she spoke her voice was raw with unsuppressed emotion. “You are now a Jedi Knight.”

No, not her student. Not anymore. 

But he was still her friend.


End file.
